Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's latest entertainment venture flopped so badly that a royal commentator says their best move now is to vanish from public view and quietly prove they can finish something worth watching.
The couple's documentary "Cookie Queens" opened August 7 in select theaters and landed at No. 15 at the box office with a per-screen average of just $735, according to Boxoffice Pro. Its total domestic gross sits at $513,148, per The Numbers, a figure so small it would barely cover catering on a mid-budget film set. Harry, 41, served as co-executive producer on the project, which centers on the Girl Scouts.
The dismal return adds another line to a growing list of professional failures for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Their $20 million Spotify podcasting deal ended in 2023 after a single season of Meghan's "Archetypes." Netflix dropped its partnership with Markle, 45, in March. And her lifestyle brand, As Ever, and cooking show "With Love, Meghan" have done little to change the trajectory.
Royal commentator Kinsey Schofield, host of YouTube's "Kinsey Schofield Unfiltered," offered the couple blunt advice in an exclusive interview with Page Six. Her recommendation boiled down to a single word: less.
Schofield told the outlet:
"I would tell them to disappear professionally for a little while, dramatically reduce the number of announcements, and identify one genuinely compelling project with experienced people around them who know how to execute it."
That advice cuts against the couple's pattern over the past several years. Since leaving their senior royal roles, Harry and Meghan have announced ventures in podcasting, streaming television, lifestyle branding, and now theatrical documentary filmmaking. Each launch arrived with fanfare. None has produced a durable commercial success.
Schofield framed the problem in industry terms, arguing that credibility in Hollywood follows results, not titles, not press releases, and not proximity to the British crown.
"Success is one of the most effective reputation-management strategies in Hollywood. Make something undeniable and suddenly the conversation changes."
The timeline tells the story more clearly than any commentator can. Harry and Meghan signed their Spotify deal, reportedly worth $20 million, and delivered one season of "Archetypes" before the partnership collapsed in 2023. The Netflix relationship, which produced Meghan's cooking show among other projects, ended in March of this year. Now "Cookie Queens" has earned roughly half a million dollars in domestic theaters, a sum that would not cover a weekend's marketing spend for a major studio release.
Schofield identified a core strategic error: trying to dominate every category at once while mastering none.
"When you try to establish authority in every category simultaneously, you can end up establishing authority in none of them. Pick a lane, become good at it and allow success to rebuild credibility."
She went further, drawing a distinction between celebrity as a platform and celebrity as a product, and arguing that Harry and Meghan have confused the two.
"They need to stop treating their celebrity as the product and start creating products strong enough to survive without their celebrity."
Schofield also pointed to a shelf-life problem. The couple's public narrative has leaned heavily on their departure from the royal family, the grievances, the interviews, the memoir. But audiences have a finite appetite for that material, and the commentator suggested it has largely been exhausted.
"There are only so many times you can tell audiences why you left the royal family. If they want longevity in entertainment, they have to prove people are interested in their taste, ideas and storytelling when the monarchy isn't the hook."
That observation lands harder in light of the box office numbers. "Cookie Queens" was not a royal grievance project, it was a documentary about Girl Scouts. It still failed to find an audience. The monarchy was not the hook, and neither was anything else.
Schofield noted one more development she did not consider coincidental. At the same moment the couple's professional credibility is at its lowest point, reports of renewed reconciliation efforts with King Charles have surfaced.
"I also don't think it's a coincidence that we're seeing renewed efforts toward reconciliation with King Charles at a moment when Harry and Meghan need to rebuild their credibility. I suspect that they understand that their fractured relationship with the royal family has become a professional liability."
Earlier this month, Harry and Meghan attended a gala in Canada celebrating the 40th anniversary of David Foster's foundation. Markle wore Princess Diana's diamond and sapphire earrings to the event, a choice that, intentionally or not, signaled a connection to the family they publicly broke from.
Schofield's broader prescription for the couple centered on execution over messaging. She argued that another rebrand or publicity push would only deepen the credibility gap.
"Reputation recovery is possible, but I don't think it comes from another rebrand or another glossy publicity campaign. I would recommend the opposite. Less talking, fewer announcements and more execution."
Neither Harry nor Meghan has publicly responded to the "Cookie Queens" box office results or to Schofield's advice.
At some point, the market stops grading on a royal curve. A $735 per-screen average suggests that point arrived a while ago.
